Photo Taken by the Pentwater Yacht Club
Photo Taken by the Pentwater Yacht Club

I love going to Pentwater because in about 80 – 90 minutes (from Grand Rapids), I can escape to a place that feels like I’m way up north in a little seaside village with lots of cute little shops. Today, I’m even going to help you go shopping and explore the town. Here’s some of of my favorite places in Pentwater, they are all located downtown on Hancock Street:

Air Fun Kites: Lots and lots of unique kites and flying things for the air!

House of the Setting Sun Art Gallery: A wonderfully relaxing little gallery of fun by Renee Berggren  Connoy.

Gardener’s Folly: Interesting, fun and unique things for your home and garden.

Blue Mermaid Gems: Really cool, reasonably priced jewelry supplies.

Bitchin Kitchen: If you love cooking, you’ll love all the gadgets and stuff here.

Oldewick Post: Coffee’s and gifts.

Then after a fun day in Pentwater, take a scenic drive back to Grand Rapids on B-15 and go through Hart. Of course, that means dinner at the Mexican restaurant locals flock to from miles around, La Fiesta (located at State and Main in Hart.)

Okay, so there you have it a fun day trip from Grand Rapids. Here’s a google map link to Pentwater… maybe I’ll see you there!

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Grand Rapids Medical Mile
Grand Rapids Medical Mile

See the VanAndel Institute logo? The blue cylinder building? And the building in the foreground with the curved roof? These are all beacons of hope for our health care future in west Michigan and just a taste of Grand Rapids Medical Mile. The medical mile is about a mile in length and is composed of medical related businesses and organizations located in the Hillside District. It has also been referred to as “Health Hill” and “Pill Hill”.

Highlights of the Medical Mile include the new Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital (scheduled to open in 2011), the Lemmen-Holton Cancer Pavilion,  the Meijer Heart Center and Butterworth Hospital–all of which are part of the Spectrum Health campus; the Van Andel Institute; the GVSU Cook DeVos Center for Health Sciences and the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine’s Secchia Center.

Near midnight hidden in the woods at Rothbury.
Near midnight hidden in the woods at Rothbury.

Tucked away in Sherwood Forest at the Rothbury Music Festival is the Speak EZ stage. It’s a bit of a secret and things don’t really start to get going there until later in the evening. I wandered upon this performance when it was being set up and was glad I stayed. When it got really, really dark, a woman wearing all white danced to techno funk music behind constantly changing graphics and imagery. The effect was stunning and interesting. If anyone knows who the artist is, could you please post this in the comments section? Thanks, Ann

Click here for a link to another amazing performer who was at Rothbury this year on the Speak EZ stage as well as during The String Cheese Incident performance, you won’t believe what she can do with a hula hoop.

Right after the gates opened at Rothbury. Yesterday around 6PM.
Right after the gates opened at Rothbury. Yesterday around 6PM.

The sky may have been gloomy when the Rothbury gates opened but everyone was there to have fun and at least it didn’t rain yesterday. It looks like we’ll have the perfect Michigan summer weather here for the rest of the weekend.

As I was walking through the festival, I noticed a surprisingly good selection of food and lots, and lots of vendors with some pretty cool stuff to buy.

Mixing the Arts at the Lotus Concert
Mixing the Arts at the Lotus Concert

Lotus was totally jamming at the Rothbury Music Festival last night, and the crowd ate it up. Light sticks were flying through the air, everyone was dancing and there was just an overall great jive in the air. Here’s a link to the Lotus MySpace page, there’s some great music here.

The Fisher Building Lobby, Downtown Detroit
The Fisher Building Lobby, Downtown Detroit

I was in Detroit today on business. It strikes me as wrong and sad, that a community this vast, with such strong and good people has so much negative attention focused on it.

There’s also a lot to love about Detroit, they gave us the Red Wings;  over the top, spectacular architecture, like you see here at the Fisher Building; warm, interesting, fiesty people who are welcoming and engaging; some of the worlds greatest musical roots; and wonderful ethnic neighborhoods.

Here’s some bloggers with other insights about Detroit.

Positive Detroit

The Detroiter

Pretty Good City

MetroMode

What’s Happening in Detroit

I know there’s lots more, so, what do you like about Detroit?

Michigan Playground
Michigan Playground
I’m kicking off the first day of summer in Michigan with a nice long walk in the Michigan woods, which are pretty easy to find here. Sometimes it’s easy to take the woods for granted in Michigan because they are everywhere. Even if you live in one of the cities, I’d venture to say that you can find a sight like this within 15 – 20 minutes of your home.

On another note, I wanted to thank everyone who stopped by to see me at the Reed’s Lake Art Fair yesterday, it was a great show!

Oval Beach In Saugatuck, MI
Oval Beach In Saugatuck, MI

Memorial Day weekend marks the start of summer as far as most Michiganders are concerned. This is what we’ve been waiting for all winter long, the sugar sand beaches, beautiful cloudy skies, warm wind blowing off the water and clean air that feels and smells like it does when you live on a peninsula surrounded by fresh water. Today I feel like I live in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Another Beautiful Michigan Beach
Another Beautiful Michigan Beach

If you grew up in Michigan, you would probably take the beaches for granted because there are so many of them, and they are all special in their own way. This is the beach at Point Betsie Lighthouse near Onekema and Frankfurt. The beach is an interesting combination of sand and rocks. Just a few feet away from where I took this photo is a beautiful sugar sand beach. I can’t wait for summer and HORRORS, taking my laptop to the beach and working there while I’m baking in the sun.